Harry No 5 and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by Silverfox1
Summary: And Harry no. 5 is back for his third year at Hogwarts
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: And Harry no. 5 is back ... or well, at least his aunt Petunia is.

Chapter 1: Owl Post

Petunia Dursley-Evans was bored. She'd spent almost the whole day watching the holovision because she didn't dare to set foot outside her flat until that ruddy owl from Hogwarts Secondary Institute arrived. In fact, she couldn't go out even then, because Vernon had spread a story about her having a terrible headache and wanting to spend the day in bed.

Maybe she should have done just that. At least time passes faster when one is asleep.

She considered lying down now, but then turned on the computer instead to check the news. Perhaps she would find something interesting there that would give her and Vernon something to talk about that evening. After all she'd have no events from work to tell him and he didn't like to discuss Harry.

Vernon wasn't even all that fond of talking about Dudley and Harry was no blood relation of his at all.

She clicked through a few business articles some of which Vernon would probably have found of passing interest. They bored her too much, though. Petunia always preferred sensational or emotionally stirring news.

Ah, here was something: An escaped convict, armed and dangerous. The population was asked to be on the lookout and report any sightings, but not to approach him under any circumstances.

Petunia regarded the picture of the man thoughtfully. He didn't look particularly strong or clever and she found it hard to imagine that he was as dangerous as the article said, but then again, how could he still be at large despite the authorities knowing where he had escaped from and what he looked like? How had he managed to hide from all the security cameras in the streets?

Something about him stirred her memory, but just then there was a fluttering sound and the long awaited owl landed on the windowsill.

It took some self-control to untie the report letter from the bird's leg. Petunia had always been afraid of animals. They were such strange, wild creatures and completely unpredictable after all. But she knew that she had to do this or else the owl might decide to fly on to Vernon and get him to accept the letter and then somebody was likely to see and might remember the last owl incident. People would start to talk about it and wonder.

That mustn't happen. And besides Petunia was curious how her nephew was doing. Unlike Vernon she was interested in children and thought that one report per year really wasn't all that much.

She steeled herself and undid the ribbon, then hastily retreated clutching the letter to her chest. The owl hooted once, shook her feathers, which caused Petunia to flinch, and then flew away.

Petunia breathed a sigh of relief and sat down to read the letter.

First she looked at the usual birthday picture. It showed a very similar scene to the one from the year before - a group of children in black robes laughing and eating cake. Petunia went to fetch the other picture and laid them side by side on the table. Yes, the red-haired boy and frizzy-haired girl had been in that one, too. The blond boy with the snake crest on his robe however was new. Or, she thought, more likely he'd been just outside the picture last year. Why should Harry have had only two friends at that party, after all? More likely there had been others that hadn't been photographed.

They had all grown nicely, she saw, and Harry looked healthy and cute, though not particularly neat with his wild hair. Petunia decided that his looks were satisfactory.

His medical report also pleased her. There had been only two medical incidents, one a sports accident that required an overnight stay in the hospital wing and the other mostly the result of the fright he'd had when some horrible dark wizard had abducted a younger child. Brave little Harry had heroically followed them into the sewers and led the teachers to the criminal's lair so the girl had been rescued much more quickly than would have been the case otherwise.

There might be some emotional trauma, but Petunia was sure that the institute staff would know exactly how to deal with it and surely the knowledge that he had helped to save somebody would help him overcome it. Petunia felt quite proud of her nephew.

The next sheet showed his grades. They weren't stellar, but he had passed all his subjects except for one called Defense against the Dark Arts. The teacher for that had apparently suffered an accident shortly before the exam day and since they had been unable to get a replacement on short notice the exam had had to be cancelled.

Petunia shrugged it off. She had no idea how important the subject might be, but Harry had after all been taught it and this was far from his final year. Surely this missing grade would not affect his chances at employment when he left the institute.

The behaviour report wasn't as satisfactory. Apparently Harry was too curious for his own good sometimes flaunting the instructions given for his own safety. However it went on to say that this appeared to be due more to forgetfulness or bad understanding than a wish to provoke, as he was generally meek and obedient while under direct supervision of an adult and always followed direct orders promptly.

He had never been caught in a malicious act - which was more than Petunia could say of Dudley whose report had told of an incident where he'd punched a smaller boy that had attacked him. However Dudley had been contrite after a detention and a good talking-to and it was hoped that he had learned better from the incident.

This letter, too, expressed the hope that Harry would grow more mindful as he matured.

Petunia also found a note that said that Harry had disappointed his teachers by apparently basing his choice of electives on that of his best friend, or at least on what subjects were easiest rather than most useful. 'This behaviour,' it continued. 'Is however not entirely unique in a boy like him. Harry is noticeably behind in his intellectual development and it is therefore not surprising that he should feel overwhelmed by the task. We expect that he will catch up over the years and with careful guidance will be able to make a more reasonable choice by the time he reaches OWL level.'

After reading this Petunia was glad that she had sent Harry a Mathematics self-study program for his birthday. If he didn't achieve the right qualifications for a good magical job, she would talk Vernon into offering him a minor position in the accounting department of Grunnings. That way he would be well provided for and even be where she could see him from time to time. Petunia missed having parents and a sister.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: So how to introduce Padfoot? Well, ...

Chapter 2: Aunt Marge's Big Mistake

Harry was a little disappointed, but not surprised to receive another computer program for his birthday. He knew his Muggle relatives meant well after all. Luckily his gifts also included a nice new set of gobstones, Quidditch gloves and a magical pocket knife. There was nothing as special as the broom he'd gotten last year, but then that broom was still fine and he had no reason to wish for another.

Once again his birthday was on a feast day, though this year it was the leaving feast for the seventh years and those older students that were going to start working rather than continue to study for NEWTS.

At least Harry was already familiar with the procedure and not at all surprised to receive his gifts at breakfast.

"Let's try out the gobstones," Ron urged him as soon as they had finished the cake.

"We can't," Hermione reminded him. "The house-elves will want to set up for the feast, remember? They won't let us stay in here much longer."

"We could play in Moaning Myrtle's toilet," Draco suggested.

But Harry no longer liked that place since he knew that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was there.

"Let's go and visit Hagrid," he said instead. "I want to know what his 'big surprise' is."

For several days Hagrid had been hinting that he had some spectacular news for them, but that he couldn't say what it was until the welcoming feast - which was tomorrow, but Harry hoped that since it was his birthday he might be able to convince him to reveal it a little early.

"It must be strange for them," Hermione mused as they walked past a group of seventh years on the way out. "To leave the institute and suddenly be out there all on their own, I mean."

Harry shrugged. He didn't really know any of the people who were leaving and had never thought about it.

The oldest fellow students he knew better than just by sight were Oliver, the Quidditch team captain, and Percival, the prefect, who had recently started insisting that he should be called Percy. Both were going to start their seventh year tomorrow and had never considered leaving early as far as Harry knew.

"They are starting their adult lives," Draco said. "That's what we're all here to prepare for. I'm sure they are all eager and excited to be off."

"But they are leaving the institute that has been their home for seven years forever," Hermione pointed out. "And all their friends are going to be scattered to the four winds. Most of them probably will never meet again."

"Nonsense," said Draco. "They can meet up. And they'll write to each other."

"None of my friends from my primary institute write to me anymore," Hermione said. "How about you, Harry? Have you heard from anyone recently?"

With a start Harry suddenly remembered Malcolm, Dudley and Pierce. They had been such close friends and had even promised to meet up after graduation, but now it seemed such a long time ago. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd thought of them at all and when had he ever looked at the yearbook that had seemed such a treasure and comfort when he'd said good-bye to them?

He shook his head. "No."

He would look at the yearbook tonight, he decided, and write to them on the very next occasion.

Nobody answered when they knocked on Hagrid's door and they were about to leave again when they head loud barking from the garden.

"That's Fang!" Draco exclaimed.

"You don't think Hagrid's had an accident and the dog's trying to call for help, do you?" Ron asked.

That thought worried Harry and so he went and opened the garden door even though he knew he ought not to.

"Let's look," he explained his action and the others followed him, though Hermione did so only hesitantly.

"We shouldn't," she said. "It's breaking in. Hagrid's garden is not a public place."

"We're not going to damage anything," Draco countered. "We're just checking that everything's okay with Fang. Hagrid would want us to go in and help if there's something wrong with him or his dog. You know how much he likes animals. He'll be the first to agree with us if we tell him we thought Fang sounded distressed."

"But that's not true," Hermione argued. "He just sounds loud."

Nor did Fang show the least interest in the children when they reached him. He kept jumping up against the fence and barking at it.

"You see," said Hermione. "There's nothing at all wrong. He probably chased a squirrel over the fence and is shouting after it. Let's get back before somebody catches us in here."

But just as they turned back there was a sudden scuttling sound and then something grey shot out under the fence and launched itself at the hem of Ron's robes with a shrill squeak.

Ron, too, squeaked and tumbled over backwards into a flowerbed in his attempt to get away. Fang stopped barking and turned around to stare at the grey thing and the other children pulled out their wands to defend their friend.

"Don't," Gregory shouted after a moment. "It's just a little animal."

Ron stopped struggling to get away from his own robe and bent towards it instead. Harry couldn't see what he was doing, but after a moment he heard Ron's voice confirming Gregory's statement.

"It's small and hurt and all skin and bones," he reported. "I suppose it was hiding under the fence and then Fang scared it out and my robe must have looked like a new hiding place to it."

They all drew in to inspect the animal which didn't seem to mind when Ron picked it up and petted it.

"Look at the cute quivery snout and whiskers!" Ron said. "Why, he's completely harmless!"

"His tail looks like a worm, though," Vincent remarked with distaste.

"Oh, I know what he is!" Hermione exclaimed. "He's a rat! You'll have to wash him and your hands with anti-flea potion, Ron. They carry around all sorts of vermin and spread diseases that way."

Harry drew back at that, but Ron didn't seem to mind.

"That's not his fault, is it? So what if he needs a little cleaning up? Rats make good pets. They are clever and loyal. And he's hurt. He needs help."

"If you want a rat, you can buy one in the pet-shop in Hogsmeade," Hermione said. "Where they are kept clean and healthy."

"Well, I like this one just fine," Ron countered. "I just need to bathe him and get him some salve for his wound and he'll be just as clean and healthy as a bought rat."

Harry gently pulled Fang away from the group.

"No Fang," he said sternly. "That's Ron's pet rat. You mustn't scare him."

Fang made another attempt to get to the group of children, but when Harry stopped him again he returned to barking at the fence.

Was that squirrel really still there? Harry looked around for it, but couldn't see anything living except for a large dog-like shape at the edge of the forest.

He yelped in fright.

"Guys, there's a werewolf coming out of the forest!"

But when the others ran over to see the werewolf had already disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: No reason for Harry to go to Diagon Alley of course, but somebody else has a good one ...

Chapter 3: The Knight Bus

Since Ron's new pet was hurt they tried to wait for Hagrid at first. They didn't know anybody else that they thought would help then heal an animal.

But Hagrid didn't come and it was awfully hot and boring outside his door.

"I don't think the heat is good for his wound," Hermione said finally. "Let's take him inside and give him a nice cool sponge-bath. That will cool and clean it."

"And we can borrow anti-flea potion from Millicent," added Vincent. "She ordered a whole bottle of it after she found a tick on Penelope last week."

"And we can ask the house-elves for an old sheet to cut into bandages," Draco suggested.

"Can't we ask Professor Snape to brew us some healing potion?" Harry asked hopefully.

"For a rat?" Ron exclaimed horrified. "He'd probably cut poor Furball up for rat-spleens."

"He has only one," Hermione lectured. "One spleen per rat."

Ron looked even more horrified.

"You mean one of Furball's family had to die for every rat-spleen in that huge glass in the potions cupboard?"

"It's not huge," Draco defended his favourite teacher. "And they were probably lab rats specifically bred for potions ingredients. Furball didn't know them. Did you Furball?"

The rat of course didn't reply.

Since Harry didn't want to enter Myrtle's bathroom again they used the boys' bathroom on the ground floor while Hermione sat on the floor outside reading.

Furball didn't seem to be particularly happy to have his wound wiped with a wet towel, but he didn't bite or try to run away and looked a lot healthier once he'd been dried and had a strip of linen wrapped around his middle.

"He is rather cute," Draco observed finally. "But I still think I'd rather have an owl for a pet. They are much cooler."

Harry preened thinking of his Hedwig.

"Hermione! Whatever are you doing on the floor?" They heard Professor McGonagall's voice from outside. "When you have a perfectly comfortable common room to read in and a library to boot!"

The boys hastily rushed outside.

"Sorry Professor! She's been waiting for us."

"We've been bandaging Ron's rat, you see."

"Ron's rat?" Professor McGonagall repeated sounding a little confused.

"Yes, my rat, Furball," Ron explained. "He's my pet. And he got hurt, so we ..."

"Ah yes. Never mind the rat. I've been looking for you, Ron. I believe you are in need of a new wand?"

"Yes, Professor!" Ron exclaimed, his face lighting up.

"Well, your parents have sent some money and since we are going to fetch the new first years tomorrow anyway, you can accompany me and buy yours along with them. Be in the entrance hall at 9:30 am or I'll leave without you."

"Yes Professor," Ron promised happily. "Of course, Professor. I'll be there."

"Can you imagine it?" He told his friends still beaming after the professor had left. "First I get a new rat and now a new wand as well. You'd think it was my birthday instead of Harry's."

Then his face fell. "But I probably shouldn't take Furball to Diagon Alley, should I? I mean, he's hurt and it'll be hot and exhausting and he might get jostled or squeezed or be frightened and run away. What if I lose him?"

"Oh, you can leave him with us," Harry offered. "Hermione and I will take good care of him. Won't we, Hermione?"

Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust and said nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Two scary strangers come to the institute ... or are they strangers? ;)

Chapter 4: The Leaky Cauldron

They were on their way down into the great hall for the leaving feast when they noticed two strangers in blue robes coming up from the entrance hall. Both wizards had black hair and there was something very aggressive , almost threatening, in the way they moved.

Harry hesitated hoping that they could avoid them, but Draco didn't seem to share his concern.

"Auror Black!" he exclaimed in delight. "Come on guys! This is the nice Auror that brought me back last year. You have to meet him!"

And so it came that only moments later Harry found himself nervously shaking the hand of Auror Black who looked even more imposing up close, but had a very nice smile and a kind word for everyone.

"So you are Harry," he said. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Sirius!" The other Auror snapped. "Stop wasting time on the squirts. We have business to attend to."

"Oh, come on," Auror Black returned exasperatedly. "I'm just saying hello to the children. It'll only take a moment and then they can say they've actually met an Auror. That's ... what does the old lion call it? ... public relations work. It reminds people that we are there to protect them ... and ... and ... inspires confidence! That was it!"

Draco laughed.

The other Auror glared. "These aren't people, Sirius. They are children."

"The most vulnerable members of society and especially deserving of our protection," Auror Black quoted.

The other Auror rolled his eyes.

"Come on, you don't have to talk to them, if you don't want to, but I happen to like children."

"We have an important mission here today. And if all goes as planned, you will get a lot more chances to see children afterwards."

"Wait a minute," Hermione gasped. "You are Aurors and you have business here? Has something happened? Are you here to arrest somebody?"

"Oh no," Auror Black assured her. "We're just here to offer protection. You see I was tracking P..."

"Sirius!"

"Ah, of course, you wouldn't know of him," Auror Black said hastily. "But there's this criminal, a dark wizard, and he escaped from Azkaban. I was tracking him and .."

"What Auror Black is trying to say is that we have reason to suspect that a dark wizard may be hiding in the area and we have come to arrange for special protection for the institute in case he should try to sneak in here. Now if ..."

"What is going on here?" a sharp voice demanded.

Harry glanced in the direction it had come from and saw Professor Snape, the Potions master, hurrying up the steps towards them.

"Auror Black, Auror Potter," he greeted the Aurors politely, but with an undertone in his voice that Harry knew very well.

Whatever mischief the Aurors had been up to they had better stop it immediately or they would find themselves losing house points and serving a very unpleasant detention.

"I must ask you to kindly desist from meddling in the children's upbringing," Snape continued stepping right behind Harry and even going so far as to place a hand on his shoulder.

Harry looked up at him in astonishment, but Professor Snape wasn't looking at him. He was staring straight at Auror Potter.

"Snivellus," Auror Potter said with malicious glee.

Auror Black laughed.

"Auror Potter," Professor Snape repeated sharply and Harry could feel his fingers dig painfully into his shoulder. "Your manners are extremely inappropriate in the presence of children, especially children of this very age group. In the interest of our young protégées I therefore regretfully find myself obliged to require you to leave."

"We have to see Dumbledore, Sn ..." Auror Black glanced at them, blushed and then continued "Professor," though in a very mocking tone. "In the interest of the children's safety. Pettigrew ... has been seen in this area. In fact I saw him myself and he was moving in the direction of the institute. We think he might try to hide in the castle and ... you know what he did last time he was arrested, Snivellus. We cannot risk him getting in here among the children."

"It's Professor Snape," Draco reminded him. "Not Snivellus. He's my head of house."

"Then I suggest you go and see Headmaster Dumbledore," Professor Snape said icily. "And do your job without bothering the children. Bringing them up is our business and we can do it better without your unqualified ... assistance."

"Why?" Harry asked curiously. "What happened last time he was arrested?"

"Nothing Harry," Auror Black said reassuringly, but Harry could tell it wasn't true.

"What happened that's so scary?" he insisted.

"Nothing," Auror Black and Professor Snape repeated sharply, but Auror Potter bent forward smirking.

"He killed sixteen people with a single curse," he whispered. "All innocent bystanders. And then he laughed over their scattered little pieces."

Harry stood frozen with shock as he tried to assimilate that information. Sixteen people with a single curse. Sixteen people in little pieces.

"Auror Potter," Professor Snape snapped. "I'd thank you not to traumatise the children with such horrid tales!"

"Really James," Auror Black added. "I enjoy a good prank as much as the next man and I don't mind teasing Snivellus, but just look at how pale the poor little things have gone. They're only children and Pettigrew is a very real threat to them. Did you have to tell that particular scary tale?"

"Now you see why you shouldn't be talking to them, Black," Professor Snape said. "Go on and see the headmaster if you have to, he ought to be in his office, but stay away from the students."

Auror Black nodded and took Auror Potter by the arm.

"Sixteen," Harry repeated dully. "That's a lot of people."

"Yes it is," Professor Snape confirmed. "Come on, Harry, let's go to the feast."

"I'm Harry!" Harry said automatically as he always did when Professor Snape addressed him.

"That you are," Professor Snape confirmed turning him around and pushing him gently in the direction of the Great Hall.

Auror Potter laughed out loudly. "What a stupid child!" he exclaimed. "Sixteen's a lot of people. I'm Harry," he aped.

"Yes, he does take after his father intellectually," Professor Snape Snape snapped but didn't turn around. "Fortunately he has much better manners, though."

He kept his hand on Harry's shoulder until they had reached the door of the Great Hall.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: So what does this Harry hear when he encounters a dementor?

Chapter 5: The Dementor

The next day Ron went away with Professor McGonagall as agreed and left Harry to care for his new pet rat. Furball was still hurt but his wound looked much better today and he'd accepted offerings of everything the children had eaten for breakfast with an excellent appetite. Perhaps they wouldn't need Hagrid's help to heal him after all.

"To be honest," Hermione confessed to Harry after Ron had left. "I'd rather not have anything to do with Furball. I don't like rats. They are filthy and spread diseases."

Harry shrugged. "He's cute. We cleaned him and Ron likes him."

"Well, just don't make me touch him."

Harry obligingly placed the rat in his pocket where he seemed to be quite content.

"I wonder what this business the Aurors came here about really is," Hermione said a little later. "They said they want to protect us from that escaped prisoner, but I haven't seen any more Aurors around since then, have you?"

"Maybe they're hiding," Harry suggested. "To trap him."

"I think it's more likely that they placed wards," Hermione said. "But then what will they do if one of those triggers? They can't apparate here."

Harry shrugged. How was he supposed to know what Aurors could and couldn't do?

"We could ask Hagrid," he suggested. "Maybe he knows."

"Hagrid is in London," Hermione reminded him. "He left with the bus."

"Then we'll ask him when he's back," Harry said simply. "I don't like the Aurors. They were nasty."

"Auror Potter was," Hrmione agreed. "But not Auror Black. I thought he sounded just a little annoyed at Auror Potter and Professor Snape trying to separate him from us."

"Draco likes him, too," Harry allowed. "But he was disrespectful to Professor Snape."

"He is an adult," Hermione pointed out. "Adults don't have to respect other adults. They are equals."

"Don't they?" Harry asked surprised. "I didn't know that."

"No, from what I've read and seen most adults that aren't teachers or nurses despise most other adults," Hermione said. "Say, is it just me or is it getting colder?"

They both looked up into the bright, cloudless sky. It didn't look like it should be getting colder, but still Harry could feel it, too.

"Maybe we should go inside," Harry suggested. "And put on our cloaks."

Hermione agreed and they were just about to turn around when they saw a group of cloaked and hooded people come towards them from the road Harry knew led towards the village. They were very tall and moved in a strangely gliding way.

Curious the children stopped to await their arrival even though it kept getting colder and colder until Harry could feel even Furball shiver in his pocket.

"Maybe we should go inside after all?" he asked Hermione.

He was so very cold and what if it was bad for Furball? Besides this weather was strange and those people were spooky. Harry didn't really want to meet them. What if that horrible escaped prisoner was among them?

"Please Hermione!"

But the girl stood as if frozen to the ground staring wide-eyed at the approaching strangers who had almost reached them now.

Then they were there and Harry could feel his heart beating just as it had when he'd found little Ginevra in the Chamber of Secrets and Tom had come out of the book.

One of the figures broke away from the others and turned towards them and now Harry was sure that they weren't wizards or even Muggles. These ... creatures weren't human, weren't natural. They were something horrid, abominations that had come to ... to ...

Tte creature sucked in air with a rattling sound and suddenly the world around Harry vanished. He was surrounded by green light and a shrill high-piched shriek of terror.

Someone was shaking him and calling his name.

Harry opened his eyes and discovered that he was lying in the grass outside the institute and Hermione and Percy were bending over him.

"What happened?" he asked them.

"Dementors!" Percy gasped. "They were in the grounds. I don't know what they were doing here. They are supposed to guard the prison of Azkaban."

"They are here to guard the school against an escaped convict," growled the rusty voice of Mr. Filch, the Caretaker. "Professor Dumbledore gave them permission because they think that they might be after Harry. But they were supposed to surround the grounds and keep the dark wizard out, not come in here and attack the students themselves. I .. I cannot cast the Patronus charm. I cannot protect the school."

"It's alright, Mr. Filch. We chased them off, didn't we?" said Percy reassuringly. "And now we'll just make sure everybody stays indoors until the teachers return. They won't dare attack again when there are so many well trained wizards around."

Harry was soon bundled off to the hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey had a few choice words to say about the wisdom of letting dementors near an institute full of children, gave Harry a piece of chocolate and made him lie down until the feast.

"And make sure you have a big helping of chocolate pudding," she told him just before she sent him to rejoin the others in the Great Hall.

Unfortunately he discovered that he had missed the sorting ceremony, but Hermione was even later than he was.

"Professor McGonagall had something to give me," she explained hastily. "Are you feeling better?"

"Is Furball alright?" Ron asked worriedly. Apparently he had already heard what had happened.

Harry nodded to Hermione and handed Furball back to Ron, but before he could say anything more Professor Dumbledore got up to introduce the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Lupin, announce that Hagrid was taking over as Care for Magical Creatures teacher and explain the presence of the dementors.

"As an added precaution I advise you all to be on the lookout for any strangers and if you see them report them to a teacher at once. Also be warned that Peter Pettigrew is supposed to be an illegal animagus. He can turn himself into a rat. So be wary of those as well."

"Alright," Harry said to his friends. "But why do they think that he is after me?"


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Hagrid's first lesson goes wrong. Or does it?

Chapter 6: Talons and Tea-Leaves

The next morning they received their new time tables and schoolbooks and discussed their delight that their very first subject, Divination, was one of their brand new electives.

It took them quite a while to find the classroom and if they hadn't had the good sense to ask the painting of a very clumsy knight for directions they might even have been late. They arrived only just in time as it was.

Professor Trellawney's classroom was very weird. They had to climb a rope ladder to enter it through a trapdoor and then they found only cushions to sit on.

Harry looked around and saw that there were students from three rather than two houses as he was used to. Then again, there were very few students from the other two houses. Only the Gryffindors seemed to have all chosen Divination.

Gregory pulled over a cushion to sit next to Harry, Ron and Hermione, because he was the only Slytherin in the class.

"The others said it might be easy, but it's not at all useful," he explained.

"Oh, I sure hope they are wrong!" Hermione exclaimed.

The professor certainly seemed very convinced of the subject's importance, and she gave them a very impressive demonstration of her skill, too, predicting that Parvati ought to beware of red-haired men and that something Lavender feared would happen on some particular day and that one of their number would leave forever around Easter.

Harry thought he quite liked the subject until Professor Trellawney discovered a big black dog in his tea leaves, that she declared was called Grimm and predicted his death.

Hermione bravely said that it was nonsense, but Professor Trellawney assured them that Hermione had very little aura and that that meant she had no talent for Divination.

Luckily their next class was Transfiguration where Professor McGonagall told them that Divination was very imprecise, which she explained meant that the results were often just a little wrong and that Professor Trellawney always predicted the death of a student when she had a new class for the very first time. None of them had actually died yet.

That made Harry feel a little better, but when they went out to Hagrid's hut after lunch to have their first Care for Magical Creatures lesson and he saw the Forbidden Forest again Harry couldn't help remembering the wolf he'd seen there when they'd found Furball. What if it hadn't been a werewolf or any sort of wolf at all? Both were supposed to only appear at night and it had been day.

What if it had been the Grimm?

Hagrid's first lesson didn't go very well, which was unfortunate, because it too had three houses combined, though this time it was the Hufflepuffs rather than the Ravenclaws that weren't represented at all.

First Hagrid told them about the Monster Book of Monsters, which he had originally chosen as their course-book, but the Ministry had objected to, because it bit. Then he brought out a herd of what he called Hippogryffs, big, monstrous creatures that Harry could not bring himself to go near.

After some coaxing Seamus finally petted one of them and that encouraged some of the others to try as well.

Vincent, Ron and Gregory eventually petted "Buckbeak" and told Harry and Hermione that his feathers felt really nice and soft, but Hagrid had said that Hippogryffs could be very dangerous and Harry who couldn't forget Professor Trellawney's prediction restricted himself to merely looking.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Somehow Professor Lupin ended up more like real teachers I've known than his book version. I have no idea why that happened. I actually like the character ...

Chapter 7: The Bogart in the Wardrobe

After having had so much luck with their new subjects, Harry supposed that it was only fair that they had to wait until Thursday to meet their third new teacher.

To their disappointment Professor Lupin wasn't even there when they arrived in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, but luckily he arrived just after the bell rang and then he took them completely by surprise by telling them that they were going to have a practical lesson. The only practical Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson they'd ever had before had been exactly a year ago when Professor Lockhart had set a cage-full of pixies loose in the classroom.

This lesson was different, though. Professor Lupin led them to the staffroom dealing with Peeves, who had been playing a prank on Mr. Filch, quite impressively on the way.

Then he explained all about bogarts and the Riddiculus charm and told them all to think about whatever scared them most and how to make it look funny.

It sounded like a fun exercise, but once Harry started thinking he discovered that it was impossibly difficult. What was he most afraid of?

His very first thought oddly was of the unfriendly Auror Potter, but that was ridiculous. The man was obviously nasty, but Harry had met other nasty people before and he couldn't honestly say that Auror Potter had been any worse than the blond wizard he'd met last year. Most likely it was simply what adults that weren't trained to work with children were like.

Aurors were there to protect other wizards and witches. There was no reason to be afraid of them when they had come to protect them from the escaped dark wizard Peter Pettigrew.

Peter Pettigrew was scary, though. He'd murdered twelve people with a single spell!

Then there were the Grimm and Professor Trellawney's terrible prediction. He was scared of those, but was he more or less scared of them than of Peter Pettigrew?

And then there were those horrible dementors all around the institute.

"So, are you all ready?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Yes, Professor!" and "Of course, Professor!" and "Piece of cake!" it sounded so loudly from all over the classroom that Harry's embarrassed "Not yet!" was drowned out.

Or maybe Professor Lupin simply ignored him because he was the only one that wasn't ready. One was after all the tiniest of minorities.

He opened the wardrobe and let out the bogart and one after the other of Harry's classmates bested it.

Harry stayed far in the back of the class and got lucky! The bogart exploded before Professor Lupin noticed and sent him forward.

Professor Lupin was very pleased with the class and in general the class was very pleased with Professor Lupin, almost unanimously declaring him their new favourite teacher. Only Harry didn't like him. Somehow even though he'd never seemed to actually notice him at all Lupin made Harry feel ashamed and like a failure.

"I still like Hagrid best," he declared at lunch. "Hagrid will always be my favourite teacher."

"But he might not be a teacher much longer," Vincent told him to his horror. "I heard that the Ravenclaws complained to the board of governors. They say that Hippogryffs are too dangerous."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Yes, Remus has the wrong idea here - or two wrong ideas actually.

Chapter 8: Flight of the Fat Lady

Over the next few weeks Defence against the Dark Arts became the favourite subject of almost everybody Harry knew, except for Hermione and Harry himself, though even Hermione liked it a lot. Her favourite subject however was Arithmancy which she always looked forward to so eagerly that Harry often wished he had chosen it instead of Divination.

Divination was definitely both their least favourite subject, Harry's because Professor Trellawney predicted his death at least once per lesson and Hermione's because according to her it made no sense whatsoever and according to Professor Trellawney she was no good at it.

As for Harry, well, he couldn't have said what his favourite subject was. He would have liked to say that it was Care for Magical Creatures, because he really liked Hagrid, but the truth was that it bored him even more than History of Magic.

After the first lesson with the terribly scary Hippogryffs someone had warned Hagrid that those were too dangerous to show children as young as them and recommended that he should start by introducing Flobberworms instead.

And so they now spent all their lessons watching Flobberworms do absolutely nothing.

Whenever Harry considered his other subjects ... well, he could have said what he disliked about every one of them from being bored in History of Magic to being utterly incompetent in Defence Against the Dark Arts, but he couldn't think of anything he actually liked.

If there was anything he looked forward to these days, it was Quidditch practise and that was just a game.

At least he wasn't as unlucky as Lavender, though, he thought when they arrived outside the Transfigurations classroom on the 16th of October and found her crying on Parvati's shoulder.

"Her essay's ruined," Parvati explained. "And it was a particularly long one. She put a whole hour of work into it."

Hermione snorted at that. Harry had never seen her finish any essay in under three hours. Hermione believed in thorough research.

Harry himself did feel sorry for Lavender, though. After all she had already misplaced her Charms homework today and then she had slipped and fallen down the stairs skinning her knee.

"I should have known," Lavender sobbed. "Professor Trellawney predicted the thing I'm dreading would happen today."

"You were dreading losing an essay you'd put a little more effort into than you usually do?" Hermione asked doubtfully. "Oh, come on Lavender! It's an unfortunate coincidence. And what's one hour of work? Just ..."

"It was the best essay I've ever written!" Lavender shouted at her. "What if it had been yours? You, you ..."

"Now, now," Harry said patting Lavender's back the way the nurses at his primary institute had when somebody had been upset. "Never mind Hermione. We'll just tell Professor McGonagall that you've really done it. Parvati saw it, right? She's your witness and maybe she'll let you go to the common room and look for your essays."

But Lavender shook her head and cried even harder. "I ... d ... didn't mis...place this one. It ... it ..."

"Her ink bottle broke when she fell down the stairs," Parvati explained for her. "And the essay got soaked."

That was indeed terrible and Harry felt very, very sorry for poor Lavender, but as it turned out things weren't really quite as bad as she'd expected. When Professor McGonagall saw her tear-stained face and heard the story she asked to see the ruined essay and upon inspection declared that most of it could be salvaged using a stain-removal charm, which she cast not only on the parchment but also on Lavender's bag and books.

In the end only two sentences remained unreadable and the work was declared gradeable, though Professor McGonagall reminded them that normally she would refuse to grade anything that required that much effort to decipher.

"Since this was ruined by an unfortunate accident and not carelessness however I'll make the effort this once," she declared. "Now on to an organisational matter. This year's first Hogsmeade visit will be on Halloween."

They all cheered. This would be their first excursion into the village as first and second years weren't allowed to go.

"Now, since this is your first Hogsmeade excursion, please remember that you will need to wear good shoes to walk in and no matter what the weather looks like do at least bring your warm cloaks along. Also remember that you are not allowed to leave your group, fight, be noisy or do damage to anything in the village. The village is a place for adults and they do not want to be annoyed by a bunch of children. Always be polite and remember to cue up and wait patiently if you want to buy anything. If you need to go to the bathroom, tell your supervising teacher - This time that will be myself. - so they will know to wait for your return."

Several hands flew into the air eagerly, but Professor McGonagall waved them off.

"I will answer questions in a moment, please wait until I have finished. We do not usually explain this to the children as it is merely a formality, but your parents need to give written permission whenever you are to leave the institute. Harry, I am very sorry to have to tell you this, but your parents have decided to refuse you permission to leave the institute grounds until Peter Pettigrew is recaptured and safely back in Azkaban. They feel that it is too dangerous."

Harry blinked at her uncomprehendingly.

"My parents?"

His parents were dead of course, but he knew that he wasn't supposed to have been told that yet and therefore teachers usually used those words when they meant his Aunt and Uncle.

"What does that mean?"

Professor McGonagall sighed. "It means that you are not allowed to go to Hogsmeade with the rest of the class."

It was a terrible blow made worse by the fact that for the rest of the month everybody around him kept talking excitedly about the excursion and all the things they would see and do.

Even the prospect of the Halloween feast that same day didn't make up for being the only third year that was banned from the excursion.

On that sad morning he accompanied his friends to the entrance hall and watched them leave in groups sorted by house and age, the sixth and seventh years by themselves, the other groups each led by a teacher.

Then he wandered aimlessly through the institute trying to think of some way to pass the time until he happened to walk into the corridor Professor Lupin's office was in.

"Harry?" the Professor asked sounding surprised. "Aren't you supposed to be in Hogsmeade?"

"No," Harry said dully. "I'm not allowed."

"Ah," the Professor said knowingly. "Misbehaved too much, of course. Well, it is lucky, because I have been meaning to talk with you for a while. Please come in."

Harry did and the Professor very politely offered him a chair and tea.

"Now Harry," he said once they were both settled. "I have noticed that you have not been making much of an effort in my class. In fact you have been avoiding doing any more work than absolutely necessary."

Harry hung his head in shame.

"Harry, Defence Against the Dark Arts is a very important subject. I know that you have faced and defeated a Dark Lord before, but that does not mean that nothing can ever hurt you. Someday you might be attacked by dark magic or a dark creature again and whatever saved you when you were a baby will most likely not happen again. You cannot rely on it all your life. I understand that compared to You-Know-Who a bogart or kappa does not seem like much of a challenge to you, but you need to know how to fight them before you can move on to bigger things. And yes, even you, despite your scar aren't above that."

"But ... but I can't!" Harry gasped at the sudden realisation that he was going to fail Defence Against the Dark Arts and would most likely never be able to pass third year, because he could not even learn how to deal with a bogart.

"What, can't lower yourself to make an effort in your classes? It's not that hard to pull out your wand and step in front of a creature. All your classmates can do it. You are no better than them, Harry."

Yes that was exactly the problem.

"But ... I ... I can't ... even," Harry sobbed. "Can't even tell what it is."

Lupin drew back in surprise. Clearly he had not expected this reaction.

"You can't decide what what is Harry?"

"The bogart. How can I fight it, if I don't know what it will turn into?" He sobbed again. "I'm so terribly awful at it all."

"What all?" Professor Lupin asked still sounding baffled.

"Why Defence Against the Dark Arts, your subject. I just can't do it."

"Hold on, you think you're awful at Defence, because you can't predict your bogart and that's why you haven't tried to face the kappas either?"

Harry nodded.

"So, there isn't anything that you are afraid of?"

"Oh no, there are lots of things," Harry admitted. "But I don't know which one I'm most afraid of."

"Ah well, then the case is easy," Professor Lupin declared to Harry's surprise. "Harry, in order to make up for your lack of effort in my class you will write me a list of ten things that you are very afraid of and what you could have done to make them look funny, if the bogart had turned into them."

Harry nodded. That sounded a lot easier than figuring out what the bogart would become, though to list ten things he'd have to include some that he was sure weren't bad enough to qualify for the bogart.

"And if I can find another bogart, you will just have to keep them all in mind and see which one it turns into when you face it. Then you simply use the counter you prepared for that fear. It's not that hard."

Then Professor Lupin started to berate him for not telling him his problem right away, but luckily Professor Snape came to see him and Harry was dismissed.

Ron and Hermione brought back some sweets and joke toys from Hogsmeade for him to try which cheered him up a little and the feast was as delicious as always.

But when they went back upstairs afterwards there was some commotion outside Gryffindor Tower and they couldn't get inside. After a long wait Professor Dumbledore came and the crowd parted to let him through, revealing Auror Black standing in front of the empty and closed portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Why Sirius," the Headmaster asked. "Whatever happened?"

"Well, I was going to search the tower just as we agreed," the Auror said rather sheepishly. "But I didn't have the password, so the Fat Lady wouldn't let me in. I ... well, I got a bit shirty. She took offence and left."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: So Sirius is going to search Gryffindor tower. I wonder how Peter will escape being found ...

Chapter 9: Grim Defeat

They were left standing in the corridor for a very long time while Professor Dumbledore admonished Auror Black. All the man would have had to do was to go down to the Great Hall and ask Professor McGonagall for the password! In the meantime Mr. Filch and several of the teachers searched the institute for the Fat Lady.

Unfortunately they were unsuccessful and so Mr. Filch finally took her empty portrait off the wall and hung up the picture of Sir Cadogan, the clumsy knight with his fat pony, instead.

The Gryffindors were given a new and very strange password, craven cur, and were finally allowed to go to bed.

Of course they could not sleep after all that excitement, though and discussions why the Aurors were searching their dorms continued late into the night.

Everybody agreed that it had to have something to do with Peter Pettigrew, but nobody could imagine how he was supposed to have gotten into the castle. After all it was surrounded by dementors, Pettigrew's picture had been shown to every door and window and there were wards to prevent rats from entering.

"There's no way he could have gotten in," Hermione agreed the next morning. "They are just getting paranoid over your safety."

The only effect all the discussions and the search that had now been postponed to during the morning lessons had was to make everybody so nervous that even the usually quiet and sleepy Furball was quite distressed and refused to stay in the dorm alone. Ron finally shrugged and put the shivering rat into his school-bag where he disappeared into a gap between two books.

"He should feel safe enough in there," Ron decided after a moment. "It's like a dark tunnel in the earth. That's where rats live, isn't it?"

The search was of course fruitless, though according to a rumour some Hufflepuff first year had heard Auror Black tell the teachers that he could practically smell Pettigrew in the Gryffindor dorms and Professor Snape was said to have reminded Professor Dumbledore of some sort of objections he'd made to some decision the Headmaster had made that summer.

Sir Cadogan turned out to be even more obnoxious as a door guardian than he had been as a guide. He kept challenging students to duels and changing passwords at least twice a day.

And as if that weren't annoying enough Harry also began to feel that the teachers were watching his every move.

Therefore he wasn't very surprised when Professor McGonagall summoned him into her office. He only wondered what rule it was that he had violated so badly that she wanted to admonish him in private rather than wait for his next Transfigurations class.

He was in for a surprise however.

"Harry, I know that this is going to scare you very, very much, but I'm afraid you have to know," she said instead of launching into a lecture about rules and obedience. "You must have heard about the escaped prisoner that the Aurors are searching for."

"Peter Pettigrew," Harry confirmed. "He escaped from Azkaban and can turn into a rat."

"Yes," Professor McGonagall agreed. "He was a Death Eater. That is what the bad wizards that worked for You-Know-Who are called."

Harry nodded to show that he understood.

"And ... well ... it's believed that he is now after you. That he wants to kill you to avenge You-Know-Who. Some things he said before he escaped and the fact that all the clues the Aurors have found show that he must be somewhere near Hogwarts point to that."

Harry nodded again. "The Aurors said that to Professor Snape when they came here."

"Well, Harry, then I'm sure you will understand that we are very worried about your safety. I want you to be really careful and never to leave the castle without a teacher there to protect you. Do you understand?"

Once again Harry nodded, but then he remembered the approaching Quidditch match. It was the first of the year, and Oliver, the Gryffindor team captain, was very eager to win the cup this year. He never had and this was his seventh and final year in the institute.

It took some begging to get Professor McGonagall to agree to let Harry continue to train as long as Professor Hooch was there to supervise and protect him.

That was quite a relief, because even despite it Oliver was so nervous that he kept pestering Harry with advice so much that he even arrived ten minutes late for Defence Against the Dark Arts on the day of the match. Luckily it was Professor Snape that was teaching the lesson and not Professor Lupin who already thought that Harry was lazy, and Harry got off with only ten points taken off his house and wasn't assigned another make up essay.

With any luck that was going to remain so as Professor Snape hated Professor Lupin and was not likely to talk longer than necessary with him. In fact, Professor Snape even began the lesson by complaining about Professor Lupin's lack of notes and informing them how far behind they were in this subject.

Then he started teaching them about werewolves even though Hermione told him they were due to start on Hinkipunks and insulted Hermione by calling her an insufferable know-it-all when she tried to answer his questions.

When Ron objected to that he got a detention and that finally silenced the class.

Harry did feel a little sorry for his friends of course, but mostly he was relived that he didn't have to serve detention or write another extra essay right before the Quiddtich match, which he knew would have been the result if Professor Lupin hadn't been sick.

Not that he was saved from writing an essay entirely. Professor Snape assigned two pages on how to recognise and kill werewolves for homework, but at least that was an assignment everybody had to do.

The weather had been awful for days and they had to play their match in a terrible storm that kept blowing Harry off course and pelting his glasses with raindrops until he couldn't even tell his team-mates from their Slytherin opponents anymore.

Luckily Oliver called for a time-out when the teachers actually had to get up and cast wards against lightning strikes, and Hermione used that opportunity to sneak onto the pitch and enchant Harry's glasses to repel water.

When the game resumed Harry was at least able to see as well as the rest of the players, though he regretted it when the next flash of lightning revealed the Grimm himself sitting in the top row right next to Auror Potter watching the game and the one after that showed Harry the dementors closing in on the pitch as well.

Once again he felt the terrible cold and then he heard a high-pitched, terrified voice screaming: "No, not little Master Harry! Please not hurt little Masters!"

And the next thing Harry knew was that he was lying in a bed in the hospital wing. His friends and team-mates crowded around him and told him the sad, but also exciting news! The dementors had not been able to resist the lure of so many people being together and had attacked. Harry had once again fainted at their approach and would have fallen to his death if Professor Dumbledore hadn't managed to slow his fall. The Aurors had driven the dementors back, but in the meantime the Slytherins had won the match.

Some of the Gryffindors, especially Oliver, blamed Harry for the defeat, but luckily his friends and the beaters George and Frederick were firmly on his side.

"It was bad luck," Frederick told him. "You can't win them all."

That was true and Harry began to feel a little better ... until he heard the worst news of all: his broom had been blown into the Whomping Willow after Harry had fallen off and by the time Professor Flittwick had reached it only splinters had been left of it.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Harry makes a shocking discovery.

Chapter 10: The Marauders' Map

Harry had to spend the rest of the weekend in the hospital wing. He did get some visitors to keep him company at times, but whenever he was alone he couldn't help staring at the broken pieces of his beloved broomstick and brooding. So Madam Pomfrey finally threw them away despite his protests.

Contrary to her expectations that didn't end the brooding, though, as Harry had a lot more than just the ruined broom and the lost match on his mind.

Sure it was terrible that he had let his team down in the very first match of Oliver's final year costing Oliver the chance to ever win the Quidditch cup, but what was much, much worse was that Harry now had confirmation that the Grimm really was after him. What he had seen at the edge of the Forbidden Forest could have been a wolf. What Professor Trellawney had seen in his tea-leaves might have been made up or exaggerated to impress the class. The Grimm in the stands had been very obviously a dog, though and seeing him had been followed by a fall that could have killed Harry.

Had the fall been the death that the Grimm predicted and had it been averted by Professor Dumbledore's interaction or would the horrid dog keep stalking Harry until he really died?

And then there were the dementors. Harry was terrified that the next time he'd have to leave the castle he'd encounter them again and there'd be more of that terrible cold and misery and screaming ...

The screaming of a house-elf nurse trying desperately to prevent Voldemort's attempt to kill Harry, Harry thought. Somehow the dementors' presence made Harry remember the terrible attack in which his parents had been killed.

Would he remember more of it every time he met the dementors? Would he maybe even hear his parents' final words? Would he recognise their voices if he did?

It felt good to return to classes and be distracted from those thoughts.

Unfortunately Professor Lupin was back as well, though at first it wasn't even that bad. He told them they didn't have to write the werewolf essay after all and then called on Harry to help demonstrate how to deal with a Hinkypunk. Helping with the demonstration was actually the easiest way to face a task in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Sure, you had to go first, but then if you did worse than everybody else you could always blame it on not having known what you were supposed to do yet, and you got Professor Lupin talking you through it step by step and possibly even interrupting to demonstrate some part himself, because it would be too hard to just describe.

When the bell rang and they started to file out Harry actually thought that it had been a pretty good lesson. But then Professor Lupin told him to stay after. Harry's heart skipped a beat. What had he done wrong?

He was never to find out, though. For some reason the Professor started the conversation with small-talk about the Quidditch match and Harry's broom which led to him telling Harry about how the Whomping Willow had been planted the very year he had arrived at the institute. He told Harry about the dangerous game they had played trying to touch it, which would have been very interesting, if Hermione hadn't already found the story in Hogwarts a History, and how a boy called David had almost lost an eye.

Seeing how ready the Professor was to be distracted Harry cast around for another topic.

"I liked this lesson much better," he blurted out at the end of the Willow story. "I like going first. It's easier when you tell me what to do."

"You'll have to be able to do it without me there to whisper instructions if you ever encounter a Hinkypunk in real life, though," Professor Lupin admonished him.

Harry hung his head in shame. "It's still easier that way. The first time, you know."

"Ah, now I understand what you mean," Lupin said to Harry's surprise. "You prefer learning by doing to learning by watching. I can't always use you for the demonstration, though, I'm afraid. That wouldn't be fair to your classmates. But if you want we can arrange for extra tutoring lessons in which I talk you through things as often as you need when you find something particularly difficult."

That would still leave Harry open to embarrassment and teasing when he first tried those things, but it did give him hope that he might pass the year after all and the courage to ask Lupin about the dementors. He was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher after all. He had to know.

And he did. He was even able to explain why they made Harry faint when they only scared the other children and why he heard the things he did when they approached.

That encouraged Harry so much that after a very uncomfortable conversation with Oliver the next day Harry actually went to Professor Lupin's office of his own accord.

"Why Harry," the teacher greeted him sounding very surprised "What can I do for you?"

"I ... Well, you remember the extra tutoring lessons you offered me yesterday?"

"Why, of course I do, but I thought you were doing alight with the Hinkypunks?"

Harry nodded. "I am. So far. But could you teach me how to fight dementors? Oliver says he'll kick me off the Quidditch team if I don't learn not to fall off my broom whenever they come by."

Lupin regarded him with a very doubtful expression, but then nodded.

"It is probably a very good idea in your case since they affect you so strongly and are likely to be around for a while. I have to warn you that it is not in the third year curriculum for a very good reason, though. The spell you need is very advanced. Luckily even a partial success might protect you long enough to allow you to land safely and prevent another fall."

He promised to start the lessons right after Christmas which was a great relief even though Harry thought that he'd probably still be kicked off the team for not mastering the spell well enough to be able to stay in the air and finish the game.

Much to Harry's disappointment there was to be another Hogsmeade trip on the Sunday before Christmas.

Early that morning while everybody else was getting ready for the trip, however, Frederick and George took him aside.

"We do find it very hard to part with this," Frederick said dangling a piece of old parchment in front of Harry's eyes.

"However we do know it by heart," George continued.

"And you have been so miserable over that stupid lost Quidditch match," Frederick added.

"Not to mention banned from going to Hogsmeade for no good reason," George threw in.

"Indeed," Frederick argued. "After all, what are parents anyway? Perfect strangers. Who are they to say what we can and cannot do?"

"So we've decided," George said grandly.

"In order to prove that we really are not at all mad at you over the match," Frederick said.

"To give you this little key into Hogsmeade."

"And a few other places besides."

It took a little explaining before Harry understood just what the Marauders' map was and how he could use it and his older friends were almost too late to join their classmates in time to go on the trip themselves, but then they were all three off to Hogsmeade, Frederick and George on the normal way as part of a neat little group of Gryffindor fifth years led by Professor Hagrid and Harry alone in a dark tunnel that led from the statue of a hump-backed witch into the basement of Honeydukes.

With a wildly hammering heart Harry managed to sneak upstairs and duck into the crowd of Hogwarts students milling about in the shop. He breathed a sigh of relief ... and found himself grabbed by the shoulder.

"Hold on a minute!" a sharp voice said. "You aren't a Ravenclaw!"

"Um ... no Professor ... uh ... Vector?"

At least Harry thought that it was the Arithmancy teacher that had caught him.

"And not a fourth year either," a boy said. "I don't even know him."

"I'm a Gryffindor third year," Harry said hastily. "I ... uh ... needed to use the bathroom and when I came out my group was gone."

He'd heard a tale of that happening to somebody during a Hogsmeade trip once.

"Third year Gryffindor," Professor Vector repeated slowly. "Ah yes, Professor Trellawney's inner eye must have been focussing on something else again, eh? Well, don't you worry, if they haven't missed you yet, they never will. You just stick with us until we all meet up in the Three Broomsticks and rejoin your group then."

Harry nodded gratefully and when the fourth year Ravenclaws filed out of the shop in a neat two by two line he attached himself to the end.

It should have been very nice to walk around and see the village, but Harry had forgotten to bring his cloak and there was a terrible snowstorm that left him both freezing and unable to see much past the thickly falling snowflakes.

Professor Vector led them from one shop to the next so they could buy Christmas gifts, but Harry also hadn't brought any money. At least the shops were warm, though, and Harry could look at the goods once he'd wiped off his glasses and given them a chance to adapt to the temperature change. There were a lot of fascinating magical objects that he'd never seen before.

Still he felt frozen stiff by the time they finally went into the Three Broomsticks.

"Ah now," Professor Vector said to him. "If your group isn't here yet, they must arrive any moment."

"Oh no, they're here," Harry said hastily. "I can see my friends over there, even if I can't find Professor Trellawney. I'll just go and join them. Thank you for helping me out, Professor Vector."

Harry slipped away before the Professor could insist on handing him over to Professor Trellawney officially and joined Ron and Hermione at a corner table.

His friends were very surprised to see him and after he'd explained how he'd gotten there had a lengthy argument over whether or not Harry ought to hand the Marauders' map in to the teachers, but at least they had money and bought him a nice hot butterbeer that warmed him up again.

He had almost finished it when he suddenly found himself shoved unceremoniously under the table spilling the rest all over his robes because Professors Hagrid, McGonagall and Flittwick were approaching together with Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic.

Harry cowered under the table shivering at the thought of being caught out of bounds in front of the minister. What would the minister think of him? And of the institute? He wouldn't fire whichever teacher would be deemed responsible for his escape would he? Or close the institute entirely?

The teachers clearly hadn't seen him though. They were talking about the dementor and the security measures that had been taken to protect Hogsmeade from the notorious Peter Pettigrew.

"I must say, I'd never have thought it of him," Madam Rosmerta commented. "Fat little Peter. He was such a fearful, quiet little boy. And a Gryffindor at that! I remember him well, always tagging after James Potter and Sirius Black. And look at what's become of them: fine Aurors both."

"Indeed," Professor McGonagall agreed. "I never would have suspected it either, but I think we could have seen it. He always did have that way of attaching himself to the biggest bully in every group. And out in the real world the biggest bully was You-Know-Who."

"Still, I don't understand it," Madam Rosmerta said. "He was a coward, not a murderer. Why kill all those defenceless Muggles?"

"He was trying to fake his death and pin the blame for his misdeeds on Auror Black," Fudge explained. "But let me begin at the beginning. As you remember Peter Pettigrew was a friend of James Potter and also of his wife Lily. Now, the Potters knew that You-Know-Who had it in for them after they had refused to join him thrice over and when Lily got pregnant Professor Dumbledore worried that he would probably try to get revenge by murdering their child. He suggested to hide Lily under a fidelius charm until the baby was born and transferred to the nursery institute. He wanted to be the secret keeper himself, but the Potters insisted on Sirius Black. All that went right according to plan, but once little Harry was born ..."

Harry dropped his empty butterbeer tankard in shock. That couldn't be true! He couldn't be the son of the nasty Auror Potter! His parents were dead!They had died heroically protecting him and the other babies!

"... and so they made Peter Pettigrew Harry's secret keeper and he went straight to You-Know-Who and told him about baby Harry and that he was at the nursery institute. Now you know how right after the attack we feared retribution from the Death Eaters. So we put out that James and Lily had still been at the nursery institute handing Harry over and had been killed in the attack. Since they were the only ones that knew that Peter Pettigrew had been Harry's secret keeper, he assumed that everybody would think that it had been Sirius Black. He lured Black into that Muggle neighbourhood and blew it up making it look like it had been Black trying to kill him. We even fell for it at first and arrested Auror Black, but of course the Potters soon cleared him and then they tracked down Pettigrew about a month later."


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: But now, how will Harry get back into the castle?

Chapter 11: The Firebolt

Still stunned by the news Harry got in line with the other Gryffindor third years when Professor Trellawney assembled them to continue their excursion. The Professor counted heads, blinked, recounted and then declared that since she kept counting one too many students she obviously hadn't lost anyone and on they went to a little tea-shop.

It wasn't until they started to head back to the school that Hermione gasped and grabbed Harry's sleeve.

"You have to go back the way you came!" she hissed at him excitedly. "This way leads past the dementors and you'll be caught if you faint again."

Harry nodded dumbly.

"Well, where's the entrance into the tunnel?" Hermione demanded.

"Honeydukes," Harry told her obligingly. "It's inside Honeydukes."

His friends stared at him.

"But," Ron said. "How are you ever going to get back in there now?"

"I know," Hermione said. "Pocket this." And she pressed one of her gloves into Ron's hand.

Then she ran up to the front of the line.

"Professor Trellawney! Oh Professor Trellawney!" she shouted sounding more distressed than Harry had ever seen her before "I've lost my glove! I think I must have dropped it when I took them off inside Honeydukes. They got in the way when I was picking out every-flavour beans so I put them in my pocket. Or well, I thought I'd put them in my pocket, but now I got cold and wanted to put them on and there was only one in there!"

Professor Trellawney sagged under the onslaught of words and blinked helplessly at Hermione.

"We've got to go back to Honeydukes," Hermione prompted her. "Just for a moment so I can pick up my glove."

And indeed Professor Trellawney gave in and led them back to the sweets shop where Harry managed to slip back into the basement while everybody was busy searching for Hermione's glove.

He stumbled back through the tunnel and then into the common room and up the stairs into the dormitory where he crawled into his bed and pulled the curtains shut to be alone. It couldn't be true. He couldn't be James Potter's son! His parents were dead after all. Both his headmasters had told him so. They had died heroically trying to defend the nursery institute against You-Know-Who. His father was a dead hero, not a rude, child-hating Auror!

The idea that James Potter might be his father distressed Harry so much that he paid hardly any attention in his classes the next day which resulted in him blowing up his cauldron in Potions and almost freezing Professor Flittwick's nose in Charms.

"Really, Harry, what is the matter with you today?" Hermione demanded when they left Charms for lunch.

"I'm sorry," Harry said the third time that day. "I just ... Auror Potter can't be my father. My father is dead. The headmaster told me so. Both our headmasters, Hermione!"

"I don't know," Hermione said. "They mentioned that it was put about that they had died at first, so Peter Pettigrew would think that he was safe. What if they were still telling that story when they sent you to the Muggle nursery institute? Then that would be what they'd tell the headmaster there and he'd put it in your file. Our headmaster at the primary institute read it in the file and thought it was true. So he told you your parents were dead, because he believed t, even though they are not."

"But my Aunt and Uncle! They get my progress letters and send me gifts," Harry protested.

"Are really your Mother and Father pretending to be your Aunt and Uncle," Hermione declared.

"They wanted me to go to Smeltings Secondary Institute," Harry pointed out. "My parents wanted me to come here and the headmaster let me choose."

"Then ... they told your Aunt and Uncle that your parents were dead and left them to decide where to hide you from You-Know-Who and they are the ones that told the staff."

"But what about Professor Dumbledore?" Ron asked. "If Professor McGonagall knows that Harry's parents are alive, then he must know, too. So why did he lie to Harry."

Hermione took some time to think that over.

"He isn't actually supposed to tell a child under sixteen anything about his parents at all," she said then. "So he just left Harry to believe what he already did, because he wasn't allowed to tell the truth."

"They lied," Harry realised with a gasp. "All our teachers lied to me! Teachers mustn't lie!"

It was lucky that there were so few days left before the Christmas feast as Harry couldn't think about anything but the horrible fact that his teachers were all liars until then. That morning he got his gifts, though and they finally gave him something else to think about.

The biggest gift clearly was a broom. Harry tore off the wrapping paper and gaped! It was a Firebolt! The best and most expensive broom in the world! All his!

He barely paid any attention to the other gifts he unwrapped until one of then started shrilling like crazy.

"A pocket-sneakoscope," Ron explained. "A really cheap one, though. They are only supposed to do that when somebody untrustworthy is around."

Even Furball ran and hid from the sound, so Harry stuffed his new sneakoscope into his oldest pair of socks to shut it up. Then they went downstairs taking the Firebolt along to show it off. To Harry's surprise Hermione wasn't at all delighted to find out he had a new broom, though. She suspected that the broom came from Peter Pettigrew and had been tempered with.

The Christmas feast was a grand affair as always. Even Professor Trellawney came, though Professor Lupin was missing again.

"He's sick an awful lot," Hermione commented.

Harry just shrugged. What did he care about Professor Lupin when he had a brand new broom?

After the feast Harry and Ron went straight back to admire the broom some more, but they didn't get to enjoy it for long as Hermione soon followed with Professor McGonagall who confiscated the broom to strip it down and test it for jinxes.

"Unless the giver comes forward," she said and walked out with Harry's best Christmas gift ever.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Harry discovers something wonderful.

Chapter 12: The Patronus

Harry was furious with Hermione even though he knew that it was the right thing to do to immediately go and tell an adult if you were worried that something might be dangerous or wrong. But the Firebolt had been a completely normal Christmas gift. He'd gotten his old broom as a birthday gift and nobody had thought there was anything wrong with it then.

What was more natural than that ... the ones who'd sent it had sent a replacement after learning that it had been destroyed?

In fact, Auror Potter had been right there watching the match when it had happened and apparently he was Harry's father. Wouldn't it be likely for a father to give his son a broom?

"But he doesn't seem to like you very much," Hermione pointed out. "I don't think he'd spend that much money on the broom to make you happy. There are much cheaper models that would have done just as well for children's Quiddich."

"He was at the match and knew I needed a new broom," Harry countered. "He was probably glad that he didn't have to think of a new gift."

"But then he could have bought you a cheaper broom," Hermione repeated.

Ron took Harry's side. He thought that it was theft to take someone's brand new broom away and that it had been none of Hermione's business. The argument grew more and more heated every time they discussed it and since the three couldn't be together anywhere outside of class without bringing it up, Hermione soon began to avoid them whenever she could.

A few days later Oliver took Harry aside to remind him of the dementor problem.

"And since you no longer have a broom of your own ..."

"I'm working on it. Professor Lupin promised to teach me how to fight off the dementors and I got a Firebolt for Christmas. I've just got to wait until Professor McGonagall gives it back. She confiscated it."

Oliver rushed to Professor McGonagall right away, but even he couldn't convince her that the Firebolt was safe.

"She thinks it could be a trap Peter Pettigrew set for you," he explained when he told Harry of his failure.

"Well, I can still work on the dementor problem at least," Harry promised and went to Professor Lupin right after the next lesson.

Professor Lupin agreed to have the first lesson on Thursday evening quite happily, even though he still looked so sick that Ron wondered out loud what was wrong with him.

Hermione claimed to know, but unfortunately Ron brought up Harry's broom again before she could tell them and that chased her away.

"She does have a point, though," Draco tried to mediate. "If the broom were a gift from your parents, surely they'd have found out much faster than this."

"I suppose they don't know Professor McGonagall confiscated it," Harry said.

"But your father is right outside the institute checking up on the dementors at least every second day," Ron suggested. "We can simply go and tell him."

"We're not supposed to know that he's Harry's father," Draco reminded him. "How do we explain telling him without letting on that we've found out?"

"We could just casually mention it," Ron said, but Draco shook his head.

"He doesn't talk with children, remember? It would seem very odd if we suddenly ran up to him and started a conversation. If it were Auror Black, that'd work, but Auror Potter. Why, he'd probably chase us off before we could even say 'Harry's broom'."

So when Harry went down to Professor Lupin's office on Thursday evening he still didn't have his broom back. But then he didn't need it for the tutoring lesson. Professor Lupin surprised him with a bogart instead.

"After your recent trouble with them, I think it is only reasonable to assume that it will turn into a dementor for you," he explained. "This way we can practise in here without breaking the headmaster's rule against letting dementors into the castle."

Then he told Harry how the Patronus charm worked.

"Wait," Harry said. "You fight them by throwing food at them?"

That didn't seem right.

"If you want to put it like that, yes," Professor Lupin said with a smile. "Nevertheless a fully corporeal patronus does chase dementors away. Maybe it's too nutritious and they are afraid they'll make themselves sick or get fat."

Harry laughed. He was beginning to feel a little more comfortable around Professor Lupin.

Finding a good happy memory was hard. At first he tried the memory of getting his Firebolt, but the moment the dementor emerged he remembered Professor McGonagall taking it away and fainted once again.

Professor Lupin revived him with some chocolate and then they discussed what had happened.

"Try another memory," the Professor instructed. "One that isn't connected to anything sad."

So Harry tried the memory of winning a Quidditch match, but was reminded of losing both the last game and his beloved broom.

He fainted again and Professor Lupin sent him to bed arguing that two attempts were all that could reasonably be expected considering the bad effect they had on Harry's health.

"You will have a better chance of success in your third attempt if you are rested," he said. "And it'll also give you time to think of a really good happy memory."

In despair over the Firebolt situation Oliver decided to have additional practices and so Harry found himself on the Quidditch field almost every day the next week.

On his way back in after the Wednesday practise he was stopped by Auror Black.

"Hello Harry," the man greeted him with his usual kindness. "What happened to your broom? Didn't you have a much better one than that?"

"Oh yes," Harry told him with a sigh. "I had a beautiful Nimbus that I got for my 12th birthday, but it got destroyed in the accident during the last game and the new broom I got for Christmas was confiscated by Professor McGonagall so I have to ride a school broom until she gives it back."

"Ah," Auror Black winked at him. "Got caught playing pranks, did you?"

"What? No! Why would you think that? I'm a good boy! ... Most of the time."

"Well, then what did you do to make the old cat take your broom away?"

"Oh, she doesn't believe that my parents would send me something so expensive. She says it might be from Peter Pettigrew and have a curse on it."

"It's not," Auror Black said.

Harry looked at him wide-eyed.

"Look, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but well, your parents are very dear friends of mine. We went to school together and ... well, your father and I always liked to pretend that we're brothers and since I don't have any children of my own I ... well, I like to pretend that you're my nephew. I sent you the broom. Both the brooms. I remembered how much James - your father I mean - I remembered how much your father loved to fly so I got you a broom as soon as you could have one. And when I saw you on it at the Quiddich game I knew it had been the right choice, that you deserve the best broom there is - and so when you lost the first one I went and got you the best. I'll go and tell the old cat. She's got to give it back to you."

"Really? You ... Oh, thank you!" Harry exclaimed and threw his arms around Auror Black.

And indeed the next day at lunch Professor McGonagall brought him his broom back.

The week before he'd thought he'd try the memory of winning the house cup or that of being rescued from the basilisk, but both had their problems. They'd only won the cup in first year because his Slytherin friends' bravery had been ignored and the basilisk affair had been very unpleasant. Poor Ginevra had even had to go to St. Mungo's, though she was completely restored by now.

The joy of having his broom back and of knowing that it had been Auror Black who'd given it to him, and not just because he'd seen it as an easy way to fulfil a gift-giving obligation, but because he'd seen Harry fly and had ... had really wanted him to have that broom, that feeling was something of an entirely different class. Never before had Harry felt anything even remotely like it: a wonderful deep warmth inside that made him radiate from the inside and want to hug the whole world. He felt so ... so very wanted, as if there were something completely unique that connected him and Auror Black, something that made Harry special among all the children in the world.

'I belong,' he thought. 'I belong with this pretend uncle even more than with Auror Potter or my real Uncle and Aunt. He wants me! He likes me because of the way I am! He likes that I love to fly!'

He could hardly think of anything else when he arrived at his lesson with Professor Lupin and when the dementor-bogart emerged from the box Harry could only just remember in time to say "Expecto Patronum!"

He hadn't even had time to focus on any memory and he thought he'd messed up the wand movement, but nevertheless a huge silver dog burst from his wand and tackled the Bogart.

"Why," said Professor Lupin. "I don't believe it. A real corporeal patronus on your third attempt? That is very advanced magic, Harry. Are you sure that you have no talent for Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

"I've never been any good at it," Harry confirmed. "It must have been because I am so very happy today."

"Ah, then you must remember this happy memory. What is it that made you so happy?"

"Professor McGonagall. She gave me my broom back. It wasn't from Peter Pettigrew after all."

It was from his secret uncle Auror Black, but of course he mustn't tell the Professor that.

"Oh," Professor Lupin said sounding very odd. "Did she say who it was from? Because I asked your parents and they knew nothing of it."

"It's from my uncle," Harry said. "You know my parents?"

"Ah yes, but you're not supposed to know that. I grew up with them here. We were in the same house."

"Then you knew Auror Black, too?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.

"Yes, he was in my year and house as well. How did you know that?"

"Oh, he just said that he knew my father as a boy and so I thought he must have been here with him, too," Harry lied quickly, but he couldn't resist asking another question. "What is Auror Black's real name, Professor Lupin?"

"Why, it's Sirius. Sirius Black. But what is that to you? And just look at the time. You really should be going to bed. We'll see whether you can reproduce today's success next week."

Sirius. His Uncle Sirius!

"You know," Harry said to Ron after Quidditch practise the next evening. "I think we should make up with Hermione now that we have the broom back. She's been looking so very miserable."

"Alright," Ron said a little unwillingly and after letting Neville, who'd misplaced the parchment he'd written down the latest strange passwords on, into the common room they went to sit with her and told her all about how Harry had gotten his broom back and had a secret uncle.

Ron still acted a little cold, though, and then while Harry and Hermione were talking about their electives he went upstairs to fetch Furball from the dorm and found only a few drops of blood on his sheet.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: This chapter was a bit tricky, but I hope I managed to make it acceptable.

Chapter 13: Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw

"Somebody's cat or owl must have eaten him," Ron sobbed.

"Well, that's a natural death for a rat," Hermione said. "And it's only an animal and you didn't even have to pay any money for it. Rats are unhygienic anyway. You're much better off without one."

Even Harry could tell that those weren't the right words to console Ron, but all he could think of to add was: "Well, of course it's terrible for Furball, but we can't do anything about it now."

That wasn't enough to make Ron forget what Hermione had said, though and soon they were back to not talking with her.

"I'm sure she didn't mean to be insensitive," Harry told Ron a little later when the girl had rushed out of the common room. "She was just trying to comfort you by pointing out good things about the situation ... though of course they weren't good at all."

"What good can there be to someone being dead?" Ron asked miserably.

"It would end their suffering if they'd been in a lot of pain," Neville suggested.

"Furball wasn't suffering," Ron snapped.

"You can't bring him back from the dead, though," Percy told him. "So it won't help to argue about whether it was good or bad. It's happened. I know something that might make you feel better, though."

"Oh?" Ron looked up hopefully. "What's that?"

"Get a new pet," Percy recommended. "They have all sorts of nice animals in the pet shop in Hogsmeade and the next Hogsmeade trip isn't that far off. I can lend you some money, if you don't have enough."

But Ron shook his head. "It wouldn't be the same."

Harry was a little more successful when he let Ron ride his Firebolt after the Gryffindor team's last practise before their match against Ravenclaw. The broom really was a joy to ride and everybody got quite excited about it.

Despite Ron's grief Harry felt happy through and through as they walked back to the castle afterwards. At least he did until the moment he noticed a pair of eyes gleaming dangerously from the bushes and thought he could make out the outline of a huge black dog. By the time he'd drawn Ron's attention to the spot however, the shape was gone again.

Had it been the Grimm or just Harry's imagination?

The next day brought the long anticipated game. Harry made sure to have his wand with him and in easy reach when he mounted his broom, but there was no need for it. The dementors stayed in their proper places far enough away that Harry didn't feel them and the only distraction he had to cope with was the pretty face of Cho, the Ravenclaw seeker.

Ignoring her was easy enough and Gryffindor celebrated a huge victory that evening.

The only one that didn't join the party was Hermione, who claimed that she had too much reading to do, though Harry suspected that her reluctance had more to do with the fact that Ron still wasn't ready to forgive her.

It was one in the morning by the time Professor McGonagall came in to send them all to bed and Harry soon dropped off to sleep - only to be woken again by a terrified scream from Ron who told them that he'd seen Peter Pettigrew in the dorm.

"A sound woke me," he said. "I opened my eyes and there he was just walking out the door. I screamed and he ran."

At first everybody believed that Ron had to have been dreaming. After all, if Peter Pettigrew had managed to sneak into their dorm, why would he just leave again without harming Harry?

"And how could he even get in?" Professor McGonagall said. "We have put special spells on every door and the tower itself to make sure no rat can get through. And the only way he could enter in human form is by passing Sir Cadogan who would have raised the alarm."

But then she went to talk to the portrait. "Did you just let a man into the tower?"

"Why no, the last person that passed me before you went in was a man coming out."

"But, but the password!" Professor McGonagall gasped in outrage.

"Oh he had the password, Professor," Sir Cadogan assured her. "That is, he didn't at first, but when I told him I wouldn't let him out without it, he went and fetched it. Read it off a piece of parchment!"

It had been Neville's misplaced list of passwords, though nobody could come up with an explanation how it had fallen into the hands of Peter Pettigrew of all people.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: So it looks like Harry and Remus will get on well after all now. Or will they?

Chapter 14: Snape's Grudge

The next day the Fat Lady was returned to her old post and security trolls were hired to protect her.

"He must have realised he wouldn't have time to kill me and escape after you screamed," Harry decided after thinking over Peter Pettigrew's actions. "So he turned around and ran."

It was the only explanation he could think of. All in all the Pettigrew story was pretty scary, but at least it distracted Ron from his grief over Furball's sad end.

With all the increased security measures it was really surprising that the entrance to the tunnel Harry had used to get into Hogsmeade hadn't been blocked along with everything else. Since Hermione threatened to betray him if he snuck out again Harry decided to wear his invisibility cloak on the next Hogsmeaede trip.

It took him some time to get rid of Neville, who had been banned from Hogsmeade as part of his punishment for writing down passwords and by the time he finally ducked out of Honeydukes' cellar his house-mates were nowhere to be seen. Not knowing what else to do Harry attached himself to the first group he could find, the third year Hufflepuffs led by Professor Lupin.

That turned out to have been a lucky choice as they were going to visit a sight Harry hadn't seen yet: the Shrieking Shack! The most haunted place in all of England.

What was even more entertaining was that some of the Hufflepuffs were actually scared of the ghosts that were supposed to haunt it.

Wouldn't it be cool if they really showed up? Maybe he could scare the Hufflepuffs a little? He was already invisible like a ghost anyway.

At first Harry only snuck about and made spooky noises, but then he slipped and some filthy greenish mud splashed Susan Bones' cloak causing her to shriek so amusingly that Harry couldn't resist throwing some more at her and her friends.

The Hufflepuffs were all terrified, but unfortunately Professor Lupin was not, nor was he amused. He cast several spells in Harry's general direction.

At first Harry thought that too was funny, since it was pretty hard to hit something one couldn't see, but then all of a sudden the mud under his feet turned to ice. Harry slipped and fell, the invisibility cloak slipping off his head.

Harry hastily pulled it back over his head as he scrambled to his feet. Had Professor Lupin seen and recognised him? He fervently hoped that he hadn't, but now the Professor summoned his patronus and sent it to the institute!

As fast as he could Harry ran back to Honeydukes, into the tunnel and almost would have continued straight into the castle, but then he remembered that being caught in possession of an invisibility cloak would be awfully suspicious and decided to leave it in the tunnel.

With his hands and boots still covered in mud, but very visible he climbed out of the statue and ran straight into the arms of Professor Snape who took him down to his office in the dungeons and made him turn out his pockets.

The only suspicious item that he found there was the Marauders' Map and luckily he didn't know how to activate it, but the green mud that was still on Harry's hands gave him away and Professor Snape made him wait in his office until Professor Lupin returned from Hogsmeade.

"Why really, Harry," the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor said as he confiscated the map. "I am very disappointed in you. Not only did you sneak out of school without permission rather than accept a punishment, but you did it to scare your fellow students and make fun of them. I hope you realise how inconsiderate that was."

Well, so much for Harry's improved relationship with Professor Lupin.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: So, how does the Quiddich championship end now that it was Slytherin and not Hufflepuff that beat Gryffindor in the fist game?

Chapter 15: The Quidditch Final

It took Harry several days to convince Ron to forgive Hermione's faux-pas, but finally they did make up. That made Hermione feel better - or so she said.

From the way she acted she was still feeling miserable, though when Harry asked her about it she claimed she was merely tired.

"It's all the extra classes I'm taking," she said. "I have so much homework to do that I don't find enough time to sleep."

"I don't even understand how you're finding the time to get to all your classes," Ron interjected.

"Well, I do," Hermione assured him. "So you don't need to worry about that."

But then she missed the very next Charms lesson and Harry and Ron found her in the common room fast asleep on top of her Arithmancy homework.

Hermione was quite distressed over her lapse, but Harry thought that she probably really had needed the sleep more then the lesson in casting Cheering Charms. In fact she still wasn't quite awake. She even mumbled something about not being able to go back and attend the class after all, because Harry and Ron had already told her that she hadn't been there.

Luckily she seemed to be more coherent by the time they arrived in Divination class where Professor Trellawney introduced them to the crystal balls.

At first Harry felt relieved that he wouldn't have to listen to her going on about his short life-line again, but he really should have known better. Professor Trellawney simply went back to seeing the Grimm, now in Harry's crystal ball instead of in his tea-leaves.

It was rather nice of Hermione to call the Professor out on it, though of course she was out of line challenging an adult. He was a little worried that it would have terrible consequences for her even though she dropped the class right afterwards.

At least that would reduce her workload and hopefully let her catch up on some sleep.

However that night Harry himself didn't get enough rest as it was the last before the Quiddich final and he had a nightmare. He was unable to get back to sleep, so he sat in the window and looked out at the dark grounds. Perhaps he even saw the Grimm again, but it was so dark that he couldn't be sure that it wasn't just his imagination stirred up by Professor Trellawney.

At second glance it looked more like there were two wizards walking away from the castle, most likely the Aurors making sure the dementors were still in their proper posts.

Luckily the game was against Hufflepuff and not the much better Slytherin team. While Hufflepuff's seeker Cedric was very good the Gryffindors won easily.

They had still lost to Slytherin of course, but second place wasn't bad and only one of the four teams could be first.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Harry sees truly in his crystal ball ... maybe

Chapter 16: Professor Trelawney's Prediction

With the game past Harry suddenly realised that the school year too was almost over. As they were third years now they had the third exam day and two days without classes to prepare for it. Harry's timetable assigned him to start with his Transfigurations exam first thing in the morning, though when he got there he found that five others were to go before him.

It was hard to wait, but at least the fist student to come out again revealed that they had to turn a turtle into a teapot. Having a chance to look up the transfiguration in his book and go over it in his mind before his turn did make things a little easier. It still ended up far from perfect however.

Then it was on to Charms where he had to put a cheering charm on the student that was to go after him - Neville - and answer some very difficult questions which were however made a little easier by the remaining effect of the cheering charm his predecessor had put on him.

He was sent on to Care for Magical Creatures which meant another hour of waiting, since the task was to keep a flobberworm alive for an hour and the best way to do that was to do nothing at all.

"Why don't you come down for a celebratory cup of tea after your last exam," Hagrid invited him kindly as he was about to leave.

Harry promised to do so and went on to Potions which was a total disaster. His potion turned out much too thin and he was sure that Professor Snape would fail him.

At least the next two exams, Astronomy and History of Magic were both written ones, so he didn't have to wait until the professors had time for him and could get straight to work.

By the time he'd scribbled down the last answer it was well into lunch break, though and he had to rush into the Great Hall and hastily sling down his already cold food before it disappeared back into the kitchens.

Right after lunch it was back outside for him, first to the greenhouses for the Herbology exam and then to Defence Against the Dark Arts which turned out to be a very difficult obstacle course on which he had to face all the dangerous creatures they'd learned about. Harry was quite surprised to find himself whole and hale at the end his wonderful dog-patronus having easily flattened what turned out to have been merely a bogart and not a real dementor.

Relieved and happy Harry went on up to the North Tower for his Divination exam which turned out to be not only his last, but also Professor Trelawney's.

"Well, for the day of course," the Professor said. "You lucky children may only have to go through one day of exams, but I have to continue with the fourth years tomorrow."

Then she made him sit in front of a crystal ball and tell her what he saw in it.

"Well, I see a lot of fog," he admitted sheepishly.

"Of course, but what are the shapes in the fog?" the Professor demanded. "What do they resemble?"

Lying to a teacher was a very bad thing, Harry knew, but admitting that he saw nothing in an exam was probably worse.

"Clouds?" he ventured. "Or maybe animals? This one looks a bit like Ron's pet rat, Furball, but that can't be, because Furball is dead."

"Ah, then you are probably seeing that he will buy a new rat on the next Hogsmeade trip," Professor Trellawney supplied. "Not the most exciting news and you were unable to interpret it, but at least we can be pretty sure that you saw truly."

It certainly was a lot more than he'd expected to manage.

Harry had just turned to leave when Professor Trelawney started talking in a very strange voice. She announced loudly that the Dark Lord's servant would rejoin his master before midnight and that said Dark Lord would rise again more terrible than before.

It was awfully scary and when Harry asked the Professor about it she claimed that she hadn't ever said it. Quite frightened Harry rushed to find Hermione and Ron.

"That might actually have been a real prediction," Ron said. "I've heard that a lot of seers can't remember those and you know that Peter Pettigrew still hasn't been recaptured."

"Oh nonsense," said Hermione. "Professor Trelawney is nothing but an old fraud. But you know Harry it is true that Peter Pettigrew is still loose and after you so if we are going to visit Hagrid maybe it's better if you wear your invisibility cloak.

She even went and fetched it from the secret tunnel for him!

Three people walking under one invisibility cloak without it slipping off to reveal a foot here or there wasn't easy which ensured a lot of fun on their way to Hagrid's hut.

It probably was unnecessary for Ron and Hermione to be invisible too but then it would have been rather boring to just walk alongside them invisibly so Harry insisted on it.

Even Hagrid was quite amused when they revealed themselves at his door.

"I never thought about the danger I was putting you in when I invited you, fool that I am," he told Harry. "How lucky that Hermione did."

Then he offered them tea, but unfortunately Fang jumped at him exuberantly just as he was putting the milk jug on the table. Hagrid stumbled, let go to grab the back of a chair to stabilise himself and the jug broke.

"Ah, don't worry," Hagrid said only just managing to prevent Fang from licking up the milk and possibly swallowing some dangerous shards along with it. "There's another one on the shelf over there if one of you can get it."

Hermione did while Harry helped Hagrid hold Fang and Ron magically cleaned up the shards and milk. With an extremely disgusted face she turned it over and out tumbled ...

"Furball!"

The rat clung desperately to every paw-hold he could find, apparently wanting to get back into the jug, but Ron mercilessly stuffed him into his pocket instead, delighted to have his pet back no matter how much it wanted to be free.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: So, whom do you get if your best friend has been attacked by the Grimm?

Chapter 17: Cat, Rat and Dog

They started back towards the castle the same way they had come: all three under the invisibility cloak together. This time it was even more difficult though because Furball was still fighting to get away from Ron.

About halfway there the frantic rat actually bit the boy, something he'd never done before. Ron screamed and let go and Furball raced away. Ron threw off the cloak and raced after his pet with Harry and Hermione right behind him.

Harry was sure that Ron didn't stand a chance to catch up with the smaller and faster animal, but somehow he managed to grab the rat again after all.

They all felt a moment of triumph, but then the Grimm appeared behind Ron, grabbed him and dragged the kicking and screaming boy into a hole at the base of a tree.

Again Harry and Hermione started to follow, but huge branches swiped at them and they only just managed to get out of reach.

"It's the Whomping Willow!" Harry gasped. He hadn't even noticed when they'd ducked through the fence in their chase after Furball. "Ron's been dragged under the Whomping Willow!"

There was a terrible cracking from the hole and Harry could only hope that it was a branch breaking and not Ron's neck.

"We have to get a teacher!" Hermione shouted.

"Professor Snape!" Harry shouted back remembering that getting Professor Lockhart last year had been a mistake even though he had been the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Maybe Professor Lupin would turn out to be just as useless in a dangerous situation. Professor Snape on the other hand couldn't possibly be the wrong choice. Harry had seen him fight before and been very impressed.

"Not Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked mid-run. "She's our head of house ..."

That was true and she had fought the basilisk bravely as well, but it had been Snape and Flittwick that had fought the most and Snape's office was closer than the Head of Ravenclaw's.

"Too far," Harry gasped out as he sprinted up the steps to the door.

There was no time to lose. They had to get help before the Grimm killed Ron!


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Professor Snape doesn't panic over a minor thing like a student being attacked by the Grimm.

Chapter 18: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Harry and Hermione ran towards the castle side by side. By the time they barged though the door and into the entrance hall however Hermione was panting and stumbling. She fell behind on the way to the stairs that led into the dungeons. Harry could still hear her stumbling along somewhere behind him when he reached the bottom, but he couldn't waste time looking back. He couldn't wait for her. The Grimm might be tearing Ron to pieces right now!

So Harry raced on down the corridor at top speed not even slowing down as he passed Mr. Filch's office. He didn't care whether he got punished for running in the corridors right now. One detention or a few house points didn't matter when your best friend's life was at stake, did they?

He was going so fast that he couldn't even stop when he finally reached Professor Snape's office door and ran right into it with a painful thump. But bruises didn't matter when your best friend might be dying either, did they?

He ignored them and started pounding on the door with both fists.

"Professor Snape! Professor Snape!" he cried, but the door didn't open. Why wasn't it opening?

"Professor! Professor!" Harry screamed and threw himself against the door.

"Were you looking for me perchance?" a cold voice said behind him.

Harry shot around and recognised the black-cloaked form of his Potions Professor through the blur of his tears.

"Professor Snape!" he cried and threw his arms around the man.

Professor Snape stiffened. He wasn't someone to go to for physical affection, but then few teachers were.

"Professor Snape! You've got to help! Ron! The Grimm!"

Professor Snape glared at him. "Calm down you scatterbrained idiot!" he snapped.

"It's ... Ron ..." Hermione who'd finally caught up panted. "He's ... been ... pulled ... under the ... Whomping Willow ... by a dog."

"By a dog?" Professor Snape asked, but finally started moving in long, big strides.

Harry ran along beside him. "It's the Grimm," he explained.

"Big, black dog," Hermione described, unnecessarily in Harry's opinion. Professor Snape was an adult. Of course he knew what the Grimm was!

"Sirius," the Professor growled like a dog himself. "But why would he ... You are sure that it was the dog that attacked Ron and not the stag?"

Stag?

"What stag?" Harry asked.

"We didn't see a stag," Hermione told the Professor. "Just the dog. And not much of him either. He just appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the back of Ron's robes and dragged him into a hole under the Whomping Willow and the Willow started Whomping again and we couldn't follow them."

"Please don't let the Grimm eat Ron," Harry pleaded pulling on Professor Snape's sleeve to make him go faster, because he'd slowed down again to listen to Hermione.

"It is not the Grimm, Harry," the Professor said sternly. "And he won't eat Ron. It is just an ill considered prank by a childish man who really should know better. I suppose being stationed at the institute made him want to relive his childhood. Now, if you could stop messing with my robes and getting underfoot, I will get Ron back." He paused and then continued more to himself: "And then I'll report this to the Headmaster. The nonsense really has gone on long enough. It's high time we got rid of those two unbearable idiots."


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Obviously there is no reason to be afraid of Aurors - or is there?

Chapter 19: The Servant of Lord Voldemort

Professor Snape led them straight to the Whomping Willow, climbed over the fence and then made a fast movement with his wand after which the Willow stopped whomping. Harry wished he knew what spell he had cast, but since he hadn't said a word there was no clue and the Professor didn't stop to give him time to think or ask about it.

He walked up to the hole as if he'd always known it was there, then sneered, bent down and picked up ...

"My invisibility cloak!" Harry exclaimed.

"You should take better care of it. They are very expensive," the Professor said coldly.

They went down the hole and found a dark tunnel that they followed for a while until they arrived inside a very shabby looking building. Harry drew close to Professor Snape glancing around at the spooky, broken down place nervously.

"Where are we?" he asked softly.

"In the Shrieking Shack. It always was a favourite hideout of the little gang of never-do-wells we are looking for."

The sound of voices from above led them upstairs where they found ... Ron, lying on a bed and clutching Furball to his chest, Professor Lupin and the Aurors Black and Potter, both of whom had their wands pointing straight at them.

"Why really, Lupin, abusing the students now? I thou ..."

"Expelliarmus!" Auror Potter snapped so sharply that it didn't just tear Professor Snape's wand out of his hand, but also Harry's and Hermione's wands out of their pockets.

Professor Snape snarled with anger and started towards the Aurors, but Professor Lupin raised his hand cautioningly and stepped between them.

"I assure you that I had nothing to do with that and certainly do not approve of Sirius' actions, but he had very good reasons for them," he said.

"Good reasons? What good reasons can there be to ..."

Another sharp command from Auror Potter cut off Professor Snape, slammed him into the wall and left him lying motionless on the floor.

Harry shuddered and drew closer to Hermione. When he'd first seen the Aurors he'd thought that everything was alright and Ron had already been rescued, but now he wasn't so sure. He looked at Auror Black pleadingly. Could his secret uncle protect them from the nasty Auror Potter? And what was that about Professor Lupin not approving of his actions? Had they found out that he'd revealed himself to Harry as a pretend uncle? He hadn't told him who any of his real relatives were, so that couldn't be so bad, could it?

"There," Auror Potter said with satisfaction. "That takes care of Snivellus. Now for Peter."

"Give me the rat," Auror Black said to Ron. "Then everything will be alright."

"James," Professor Lupin said. "Was that really necessary? The children are frightened. You are supposed to be their protectors."

"I am protecting them," Auror Potter said. "A little fright won't hurt the spoilt little brats. Pathetic cowards really. We'd never have been afraid. We'd have loved such an adventure."

"No," Ron screamed at Auror Black. "Leave him alone!"

"We were an awfully careless lot," Professor Lupin said. "We should have been afraid."

"Afraid of Auros? Don't be ridiculous," Auror Potter snorted as he grabbed Ron roughly. "Nobody with a clear conscience has any reason to be afraid of Aurors. Now, give us Peter!"

"He isn't Peter," Ron yelled. "His name is Furball and he's mine! Leave him alone!"

Auror Potter shook Ron roughly causing him to scream in apparent pain.

Harry and Hermione rushed forward to help their friend, but found themselves suddenly tied up.

"I'm sorry, children," Auror Black said. "But I can't let you interfere with this."

Auror Potter pried open Ron's hand and Auror Black pulled the struggling Furball away from him.

"Yes, it definitely is Peter Pettigrew," he announced. "See Remus? James?"

"We need more proof than that for the Minister," Auror Potter snapped. "We have to force him to transform."

He stepped closer to Auror Black who was holding out the rat.

"Nooo!" Ron screamed and launched himself at the Aurors even though it looked like his leg was hurt so badly that he could not stand on it.

A casual wave of Auror Potter's wand tied him up as securely as Harry and Hermione and then the Auror turned back to Furball.


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: It's not so easy being tied up, especially if there's a fence in the way.

Chapter 20: The Dementor's Kiss

To the children's horror the Auror's spell did indeed turn Furball into a fat little man that begged and pleaded with Professor Lupin and the Aurors pathetically. In the end he too was bound up however and had to march out with Auror Potter's wand pointing at his head.

Professor Lupin then conjured a stretcher on which to levitate Ron and told Harry and Hermione to follow him as he directed the stretcher out the door.

After them came Auror Black levitating Professor Snape so carelessly that the poor Professor's head hit the ceiling several times.

Once again Harry didn't see what was done to the Whomping Willow, but it wasn't a problem. They had all reached the fence by the time it started whomping again. Apparently it was easy enough for an adult wizard to levitate someone over the fence and climb after them, but Harry, Hermione and Peter Pettigrew had to let themselves drop to the ground and roll under it. And then they lay on the other side and found that they couldn't get up again tied up as they were.

Harry was just about to try pushing himself up against a fence post when the moon peeked out from behind a cloud. For a moment Harry smiled at it, but then there was a horrible scream and Professor Lupin dropped to the ground writhing in pain.

"Oh no!" Hermione exclaimed. "He's a werewolf!"

Right in front of the children's horrified eyes Professor Lupin turned into a horrible monster and started to move towards the helpless Ron. But before he could get close enough to touch the boy the Grimm and a huge stag dove in and drove him away towards the forest.

Harry drew a breath of relief, which caught in his throat when he saw the dark shapes closing in on them from all sides. They were surrounded by dementors and he couldn't even reach his wand!

He looked around for the adults desperately, but both Aurors and even the tied up Peter Pettigrew had disappeared and only the unconscious Professor Snape was left - just as helpless as he and his friends were.

"Expecto patronum," he mumbled anyway. "Expecto patronum. Expecto patronum!"

And finally the miracle happened: Harry's patronus appeared, bounding towards them from across the lake and drove the dementors away.

Harry fainted with relief.


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Harry isn't all that eager to go back in time to help the Aurors.

Chapter 21: Hermione's Secret

Harry woke up in the hospital wing, with Hermione lying in the bed next to him and Ron still asleep in another further away. When he started to talk to Hermione, however, she put her finger to her lips and nodded to the door very slightly.

It wasn't closed properly allowing the children to overhear a conversation between Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape and no less a person than the Minister of Magic himself.

At first it was just Professor Snape reporting the familiar tale of Ron's abduction into the Shrieking Shack, but then he added another tale from his own student days to which Harry listened with growing horror. Apparently Professor Lupin really was a werewolf and the shack had been boarded up and blocked by the Whomping Willow to keep him safely contained during the full moon.

"Potter, Black and Pettigrew used to use it as their private clubhouse in which they planned cruel and frequently dangerous pranks on the rest of the student body," the Potions Master explained. "I was almost killed when they lured me into it on a full moon. I would have been if James hadn't gotten cold feet and saved me at the last moment. When you stationed them here, Minister, I assumed that Aurors Potter and Black had outgrown such misconduct, but look at what they have done. Because of their stupid prank little Ronald received a very painful injury which they simply ignored rather than taking him to the hospital wing for immediate treatment This caused the child unnecessary additional suffering. I was attacked without provocation and Lupin was somehow lured outside without having taken the wolfsbane potion I specifically brewed to ensure the protection of the children. And as if the Aurors hadn't already caused enough trouble, your dementors also went out of control and invaded the institute grounds for the third time this year. It is almost a miracle that no innocent child was bitten or kissed and the worst injury we have to deal with is a broken leg. In the interest of the students' safety I demand that you withdraw both Aurors and dementors from the institute. They really should be dismissed entirely, if you ask me. Aurors ..."

"Now Severus, I'm sure the Aurors had very good reasons for their conduct," the headmaster interjected. "It all just went horribly wrong when Ron got hurt and they surely didn't mean to knock you out or set Professor Lupin lose. However, I have to agree with the demand to withdraw the dementors, Cornelius."

"Of course, of course," the Minister agreed. "There can be no question of that. Attacking the children, indeed! As for Black and Potter, well I have to say that Severus has a point there as well. Attacking and hurting a child, even if they never intended to do more than startle him, is irreconcilable with the image the Ministry of Magic and its Aurors ought to present. I will make an example of them. You can be sure of that. Those two will never work for the Ministry again. In fact, I doubt anyone in the wizarding world will want to employ them once I'm through with them."

"Oh, but it wasn't a prank," Hermione exclaimed causing the adults to rush in and Madam Pomfrey to make quite a fuss over their invasion.

Harry was surprised that Ron slept through it all, but even more surprised that Hermione was attempting to get the Aurors out of their punishment. Sure the consequences that the Minister had threatened were almost too horrible to contemplate, and Harry, too, did not want his secret Uncle Sirius to be prevented from being productive and happy for the rest of his life, but on the other hand he had abducted and hurt Ron and Auror Potter surely deserved to be punished for attacking a teacher and tying them up when he could have explained instead.

"It was all Auror Potter, really," he said into the chaos. "Auror Black is nice. He didn't want to hurt anybody. Auror Potter just never listens to him."

But nobody listened to Harry either.

Finally Professor Dumbledore got all the other adults to leave the hospital wing and let Hermione tell her story.

"Ron's pet rat you say?" the headmaster said at the end. "And he never reported finding a tame rat even though we warned you at the arrival feast?"

"He'd already had Furball for a day then," Hermione admitted. "It never occurred to us that Peter Pettigrew might have reached us before the warning."

"Well, I will try to explain it to the Minister," the headmaster promised. "But I fear that without Peter to show him as proof he will insist on dragging poor, innocent James and Sirius before a disciplinary court."

"Maybe they'll recapture him," Hermione suggested hopefully.

But the headmaster shook his head.

"They will be too busy trying to keep poor Professor Lupin under control. Without his potion he has no control over his wolf-self at all, I fear."

Harry wasn't all that worried. Surely the disciplinary court would find that it was all Auror Potter's fault. The law was always fair after all.

Hermione however got very hectic the moment Professor Dumbledore had left them.

"We have to do something!" she told Harry. "Come on!"

And then she showed him a strange hourglass-pendant that she called a time-turner and said she'd been using it to go back in time to attend simultaneous classes all year.

"We'll just go back two hours and catch Peter Pettigrew," she declared.

And they did indeed go back in time and sneak out of the hospital wing and into the grounds They saw themselves throw off the invisibility cloak and run after the escaping rat, but when Harry wanted to run out and join the chase Hermione pulled him back into their hiding place behind a tree.

"We can't. We'd see ourselves and it'd change time, if Ron doesn't have Peter Pettigrew in the Shrieking Shack."

So they waited and watched as Auror Black in the shape of a huge black dog grabbed Ron and dragged him under the Whomping Willow, as they themselves ran back to the castle to fetch Professor Snape, as Professor Lupin rushed out of the castle and into the tunnel, as they returned with Professor Snape.

"Now that everybody is inside we just have to wait until they return and Pettigrew transforms and runs right towards us into the forest. Then we'll catch him and give him to the Aurors."

"Can they hold him, if they have to stay animals to guard the werewolf?" Harry asked a little doubtfully.

Neither a dog nor a stag had hands after all and they'd already seen what happened if you left Peter Pettigrew tied up and unguarded.

"Oh no!" Hermione gasped. "I completely forgot about that! Professor Lupin will rush right at us when they chase him away from Ron. We can't stay here."

So they fled to the other side of the lake.

"But how will we catch Peter Pettigrew from here?" Harry asked.

"We can't," Hermione said dejectedly. "It was all for nothing."

So they remained on the other side of the lake and watched as the whole group came back out, Professor Lupin was hit by the moonlight and changed into a horrid monster, the Aurors turned into animals and drove him away into the forest, Peter Pettigrew disappeared, the dementors appeared and drew closer and closer around them ...

Harry hated to watch this part again. He could still remember how terrible the presence of the monsters had felt and how scared he had been and the scene seemed to drag on and on ...

Finally he could take it no longer and raised his wand.

"Expecto patronum!"

His dog patronus burst forth, bounded across the lake and drove off the dementors.

"We should go back inside now while everybody is unconscious," Hermione suggested, but Professor Snape was already stirring.

They watched the Professor vanish the ropes that bound them, conjure two more stretches and levitate them and Ron into the castle.

"Alright now," Hermione said a minute or so later and they started to sneak back into the castle.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Final chapter for now. Once again I won't start posting until I've at least finished the first draft of book four, but that shouldn't be too long now, just a few weeks.

Chapter 22: Owl Post Again

They managed to get back into the hospital wing just after Madam Pomfrey missed them.

"Just what are you doing out of bed?" the nurse demanded angrily.

"Had to go to the bathroom," Harry lied quickly.

That excuse worked almost always when one wasn't where one was supposed to be and Harry was particularly likely to get away with it as most teachers didn't think he was smart enough to lie.

"Together?" the matron said sarcastically, however.

"Why of course not," Hermione assured her. "They are different bathrooms. We only happened to have to go at about the same time."

They returned to their beds and took their chocolate as the nurse told them to.

Harry felt quite pleased with himself when he remembered how effective his patronus had been, but later when Ron woke up and they told him what had happened he found out that Hermione was deeply disappointed, because Peter Pettigrew had escaped and the Aurors were still in trouble.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Ron consoled her. "I'll tell the Minister what happened."

And he started writing a long letter to the Ministry of Magic right away.

By lunchtime the next day they had all three been released from the hospital wing, but since it was another exam day there was nothing much for them to do. For a while they wandered around aimlessly discussing what Peter Pettigrew might do after his escape and whether the dementors had already left the institute.

Harry didn't feel like going to the perimeter and checking, despite the strength of his patronus. He really disliked dementors.

"Ah, there you are, Harry," said an unexpected voice.

Harry turned around and saw that Professor Lupin was coming towards him.

"I wanted to return this to you," the teacher said and held the Marauder's map out to him. "And now that I am no longer your teacher I can."

"Thank you," Harry said gladly accepting the map back despite his surprise. "But why would you do that?"

"Why, because we have no more use for it now that we are no longer at Hogwarts and your father is the only one of us Marauders that has a son. I believe that makes you the rightful owner of our map, don't you?"

"But Professor," Hermione exclaimed. "Why aren't you our teacher anymore?"

"You're the best Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor we've ever had," Ron assured him.

"Ah, but I am also a werewolf and now that the students know ..."

"Oh, but they don't have to," Hermione assured him. "We won't tell. I've known for months and never told anyone."

"That is very nice of you, but unfortunately Professor Snape already let it slip at breakfast - and even if he hadn't, yesterday I forgot to take my wolfsbane potion and ran around on the institute grounds out of control. What if I had bitten somebody? What if it happens again? I'm not safe around children and so I have decided to leave."

All of Harry's classmates were very sad at Professor Lupin's departure, but despite how kind he had been in the end Harry was glad to see him go. Perhaps the next Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor would think a little better of him, or at least not assume that he was lazy when he didn't perform as well as the rest of the class.

At dinner that evening Ron received a letter by a tiny hyperactive owl.

"It's from Auror Black," he announced happily. "He says my letter to the Minister convinced him that there should be no big trial after all and he and Auror Potter got away with an official reprimand for attacking Professor Snape. And he says I can keep this owl as a replacement for Furball and as a sort of apology for hurting me! He's definitely a real owl and no animagus. They tested him."


End file.
